


Five Times Oliver Needed a Sidekick and One Time Chloe Needed a Hero.

by Adorable Blondes (Chloe), bansheequeen (queenbanshee), xtremeroswellian



Series: The Five Times Series [3]
Category: Chlollie - Fandom, Smallville
Genre: Chlollie, F/M, adorable blondes, the five times series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-15
Updated: 2010-03-01
Packaged: 2017-11-23 10:36:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/621179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chloe/pseuds/Adorable%20Blondes, https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenbanshee/pseuds/bansheequeen, https://archiveofourown.org/users/xtremeroswellian/pseuds/xtremeroswellian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is a sequel to <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=chloeas&keyword=Fic+-+five+times&filter=all">Five Times Chloe Met Oliver and One Time She Met Green Arrow</a> and <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=chloeas&keyword=Fic%20-%20five%20times%20part%202&filter=all">Five Times Chloe and Oliver Surprised Each Other.</a>.</p>
    </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sequel to [Five Times Chloe Met Oliver and One Time She Met Green Arrow](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=chloeas&keyword=Fic+-+five+times&filter=all) and [Five Times Chloe and Oliver Surprised Each Other.](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=chloeas&keyword=Fic%20-%20five%20times%20part%202&filter=all).

Title: Five Times Oliver Needed a Sidekick and One Time Chloe Needed a Hero.  
Authors: [](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/profile)[**chloeas**](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/) and [](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/profile)[**dl_greenarrow**](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/)  
Rated: PG-13  
Disclaimer: Not ours. Don't sue. Thanks. :D  
Note: This is a sequel to [Five Times Chloe Met Oliver and One Time She Met Green Arrow](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=chloeas&keyword=Fic+-+five+times&filter=all) and [Five Times Chloe and Oliver Surprised Each Other.](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=chloeas&keyword=Fic%20-%20five%20times%20part%202&filter=all).

 

Oliver smiled faintly as he picked up a picture frame from Chloe's bedside table in her dorm room. It was a picture of her with her father, when she was younger. If he'd had to guess, he'd say she was maybe six in the photo. He set it back down, listening to the sound of the running water from the bathroom where she was showering. He sat down on the edge of her bed, looking around at the variety of books and CD's that were scattered around. He picked up the book nearest him and read the cover: Mysteries of the Strange and Unexplained. A grin tugged at his lips a little and he set it back down before glancing at the basket of clean laundry she'd left sitting on her bed. Without really thinking about it, he dumped the clothes onto her bedspread and began to fold them neatly, putting them in piles. He didn't even hear the door open.

"Chloe, I need-" Clark stilled, his eyes wide when he saw, not Chloe, not the empty dorm room, but a guy standing there, and was he folding her clothes? Frowning, he crossed his arms over his chest, "who are you?"

He turned at the sound of the unfamiliar voice and found himself looking at a guy who was about his height, but looked a little younger than him. Dark hair and narrowed eyes, the guy didn't look very happy. It took him about three seconds flat to figure out who he was. "I'm Oliver. You must be Clark." He held his hand out toward him, offering him a smile.

Because he was raised to be polite, Clark took Oliver's hand and shook it but kept frowning suspiciously at the other man who looked way too comfortable in his best friend's room, especially for someone Clark didn't know who he was, "where is Chloe?"

"Oh, she's in the shower." He motioned toward the closed bathroom door. "I'm sure she'll be out soon. You want something to drink?" he asked, glancing toward the mini-fridge. "There's water, soda and coffee, of course."

That only caused Clark to frown even more, if he knew who he was, he should know better than to be so at home in his best friend's place. _He_ should be the one offering the other man things to drink. And why was he there when Chloe was in the shower? And folding her laundry for her.

"Why are you here?" He asked bluntly.

Oliver arched an eyebrow at the tone of Clark's voice. "Well, Chloe invited me to come over to hang out and since I said yes, I came over." He couldn't help but smirk.

Clark considered Oliver for a moment then moved over to Chloe's bed and sat down, "I need to talk to her." And he didn't really believe what the other man was telling him.

He shrugged a little, and went back to folding clothes, eyeing him. He could tell Clark already didn't like him, which was fine. He was used to that reaction from people. "You go to Met U, too?" he asked, willing himself to make at least a little effort to be polite.

"University of Central Kansas," he said, watching Oliver out of the corner of his eyes, "you don't go to college, do you?" This guy looked way older than him, older than Chloe should be dating.

The way he asked it was so judgemental, it took every effort on Oliver's part to smile and shake his head. "No, I don't," he said.

"Where did you meet Chloe?" Clark asked, this time turning to face the other man.

"Which time?" he responded, for once not being a smart ass.

"The first?" Clark said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Because what kind of other answer would you usually have for that kind of question.

"Well, the first time we met was at Queen Industries here in Metropolis," he responded with a slight shrug. He glanced at Clark sideways. "I was eleven."

That made him pause and he just stared at him, "if she's known you that long, how come she never mentioned you before?"

Oliver paused, as well. "Well, we didn't exactly stay in touch. We've just run into each other periodically over the years."

Clark nodded and shrugged a little, he was about to say something else when he heard the door to the bathroom open and turned to look in that direction. Finally.

As she came out, Chloe was drying her hair on a towel, "so where do you think we should go for dinner? I mean, we have lots of options around campus but--" She paused when her eyes fell on Clark and she glanced over at Oliver, "Clark, everything okay?" It wasn't unusual that he would stop by without calling, but it was unusual that he would stay when she obviously had company and on top of that, he looked highly uncomfortable.

"Yeah, your friend was just telling me how you met." Clark met her eyes, giving her a look.

"Which time?" She asked, turning back to look at Oliver and smiling at him.

"The first," he told her, smiling back at her.

Clark looked between them, then frowned a little. "I guess I should go. I just came by to see if you could help me on some...homework." He gazed at Chloe.

Oliver glanced at Clark, then at Chloe, hesitating a moment. "Why don't I go grab some takeout for dinner? That way you can help Clark."

Clark's words made her worry a little and she nodded, meeting Oliver's gaze, "that would be awesome, if you don't mind."

"Sure thing," he said easily. "Chinese? Deli? Pizza?"

"Whatever you're in the mood for, I'm just starting to get hungry so I have no preferences." She told him, smiling softly.

Oliver met her eyes for a moment, a soft smile touching his lips as well. "All right. Be back soon." He headed out of the room, leaving Clark and Chloe alone.

With a deep breath, Chloe walked over to the bed and sat down next to Clark, looking at him, "okay, what's going on?"

"That's a good question." He frowned and looked back at her uncertainly.

"Clark," she gave him a look, rolling her eyes, "you cannot tell me this is about Ollie."

"Ollie?" He raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah? Ollie? Oliver? The guy you were just talking to?" Chloe raised her eyebrows and gave him a look.

"You've given him a nickname already? How long have you known this guy, Chloe? He doesn't even go to school here." He frowned, worry clear in his eyes. "I mean, I came in here and he was folding your clothes. And he offered me something to drink."

"You're kidding me, right? Ollie is the nickname to Oliver, just like you call me Chlo, Clark. What are you freaking out about?" She paused and looked behind her, over at the bed and smirked a little, shaking her head, "He was folding my clothes?" Blinking, she shook her head, "and he was being polite, there is nothing wrong with that."

"It's just all a little sudden, Chloe." He studied her intently.

" _What_ is all of the sudden, exactly, Clark?"

His eyebrows furrowed. "Are you guys seeing each other?"

That made her pause and she cocked her head to look at him, technically, yes, they were seeing each other, even if they hadn't really talked about it and they hadn't slept together yet, they had been going on dates since he had kissed her last week, but it was less than a week and it wasn't official or anything, "kinda. Maybe? I don't know yet."

Clark looked down at the floor. "Oh."

" _What_ , Clark?"

"Nothing, I just..." He shook his head a little. "Nothing." He glanced up at her. "What's your impression of this Green Arrow guy?"

Chloe narrowed her eyes, studying him for a moment but then, when she processed his question, she shrugged, "you read the article, I think he's a decent guy, why?"

"Just wondered." He studied her in return. "I'm just not sure he's all he claims to be."

"What makes you say that?" She said, squinting slightly, she was sure whatever it was that Clark thought he saw wasn't really what he saw, but she couldn't have Clark going after Oliver, or Green Arrow for that matter.

"Well for one, Chloe, he _shoots_ people with arrows." He frowned.

"He shoots bad guys, Clark, but he shoots to stop them, not to kill them, would you rather they got away with mugging and hurting civilians?"

"Of course not," he said without hesitation, his frown deepening. "I just think maybe there are better ways." He looked at her. "And I want you to be careful, Chloe."

"Not everyone has the abilities you do," she told him, watching him and trying to calm herself, he wouldn't listen to her if she wasn't calm and he might start suspecting her, "I'm pretty sure this guy is human, Clark, and he's doing a lot for Metropolis, what could possibly be wrong?"

The worry on his face didn't go away. "I'm just concerned, Chloe, that's all. I don't want anything to happen to you."

"I'm okay," she placed a hand on his arm and squeezed it softly, "I promise, Clark. Besides, I only ran into the Green Arrow twice, he hasn't showed up since the interview."

He relaxed a little. "All right."

Chloe nodded a little, technically, it was true, she hadn't seen Oliver in his uniform since that night, "is that the only thing that is bothering you?"

Clark was silent for a moment. "I just haven't seen you much lately," he admitted with a slight shrug.

"I know," her face fell a little and she watched him carefully, "I'm sorry, we'll change that, I promise."

He smiled a little, nodding. "Okay. I should probably get going before your...friend...gets back."

Pursing her lips together, she nodded a little, "he's a nice guy too, Clark."

He simply nodded again, though he wasn't quite sure of that himself yet. Time would tell. It always did. "All right, well, if you need anything, call me."

"I will, you too okay?" She told him, holding his gaze, she didn't want Clark to feel like he was losing the space he had in her life because of Oliver, the two of them had a lot in common and she really hoped they could become friends eventually.

"I will." He smiled at her, then headed out the door.

Chloe smiled back and watched as he left the dorm, sighing deeply as silently as possible after he did, she got up and picked up the laundry that was all over her bed, pushed it back into the laundry basket then sat back down, turning the TV on and waiting for Oliver to get back.

He returned a half-hour later, hesitantly knocking on the door and trying to ignore the stares from a couple of her dorm-mates as they passed by.

"C'mon in," she called, sitting up and looking at the door.

Oliver stepped inside, glancing around and relaxing when he realized it was just her. He closed the door quietly and held up the rather large bag of food. "I didn't really know what kind of Chinese foods you liked, so I got a little of everything."

With wide eyes, Chloe stood up, "that's enough food to feed ten people, Oliver," she told him, walking over to her small desk and closing her laptop before putting it away along with her papers and making room for the food.

"Well, I figured whatever we don't eat, I'll take to the shelter down the street," he said with a slight shrug.

That made her smile and she nodded, "okay, as long as it's for a good cause," she took the bag and placed it over the desk then start to pull take out boxes out of it, "Clark didn't threaten to kill you or anything, right?"

He glanced up at her, uncertainty in his eyes. "No, but he definitely didn't like me."

Frowning a little, she shook her head, "he's just overprotective..."

He fell silent, nodding a little as he picked up a box of chicken fried rice and sat down on the edge of her bed.

"What?" She asked him, turning to face him as he walked away.

Oliver blinked and looked up at her. "What...what?"

"You went all quiet on me."

"Oh." He was quiet for a moment as he stirred the rice in the box with his plastic fork. "He didn't have any idea who I was." His voice was hesitant.

Frowning, she shook her head, not understanding what he meant, "did you tell him you were Oliver Queen?"

Oliver raised his eyebrows. "No."

"How would he know who you are, then?"

"I meant...to you." He took a bite of his food.

"Oh," she paused then walked over to the bed, "well, I didn't want to tell anyone anything until I knew for sure who you are--" she paused again, "to me."

He swallowed and gazed up at her. "I think you're the only one who knows for sure," he said softly.

Shaking her head, she sat down next to him, "that's not what I mean," she told him, "I just don't know exactly where we are and... I didn't want to label us anything that you're not comfortable with."

Oliver relaxed at her words. Truthfully she was the only woman who'd ever taken into account what he might be comfortable with in terms of a relationship. "Likewise, but...on my part, it all comes with a lot more baggage," he told her, holding her gaze.

"Mine comes with Clark and Lois, I think we're even," she told him, smiling slightly.

"Yeah, but mine comes with the media making assumptions, and digging up your past as well as mine," he said quietly, looking down for a moment. "That's why I've kind of steered us toward more low-key places when we go out," he admitted.

"I have dealt with things that are much scarier than the press, Oliver," she told him seriously, thinking more of the Luthors than the aliens and meteor mutants, "look, we don't _have_ to label anything if you don't want to, I'm fine with how we are now."

He met her eyes, holding her gaze for a long moment, then leaning in and kissing her softly.

Raising her eyebrows slightly, she kissed him back after a moment, closing her eyes and shifting closer to him.

He smiled faintly as he set his food down on the stand by her bed and slid his arms around her, tugging her closer. He slid one hand into her hair, resting his forehead against hers.

Chloe opened her eyes and looked at him, still confused if his actions meant he didn't want to label anything or if it meant something else and she was completely missing it since she had never been very good as deciphering what guys meant in these kind of situations, but she felt like it wasn't the right time to ask so she lifted a hand to his arm and smiled softly.

Oliver drew in a breath and let it out slowly. "I don't really know what to call it," he said softly. "I just know how I feel."

"I don't know what to call it either," she admitted, "maybe it's too early to call it anything."

"It might be. And I really don't want to jinx it," he told her quietly. Cause God knew he didn't have the best of luck when it came to relationships. Granted, that was usually his own fault.

"Me neither," she agreed, squeezing his arm gently, "and considering I don't have the best luck when it comes to this kind of thing, I think we should wait."

Oliver nodded slightly, kissing her once more, then offering her a soft smile. "All right. Then we wait."

Chloe smiled at him and nodded, leaning in and kissing him again, as long as she could keep kissing him and move into other things, she would be okay with whatever label he chose, "and while we wait, should we eat?"

"Probably should. I have it on good authority that Chinese food isn't nearly as good when it's cold." He smiled.

With a nod, she got up and picked one of the take out boxes before walking around the bed and sitting next to him again, "and for the record, chicken lo mein is my favorite."

He grinned. "I'll remember that," he promised.

"I'm surprised you didn't find anyone to ask this time," she teased.

"Maybe I should start carrying around a picture of you so when I go to food places around here I can just ask to get your usual," he teased back.

Laughing, she shook her head and raised her eyebrows at him, "or you can give me a call and ask me in case I'm not there with you?"

"Or that. I tend to do things the hard way, apparently." He grinned.

"I'll give you that much," she raised her eyebrows and paused, "speaking of doing things the hard way..."

He arched an eyebrow and waited for her to finish her thought.

"Apparently Clark is worried that I'm in danger because he doesn't know if he trusts the Green Arrow or not and wants me to be careful."

Oliver sighed softly. "So he doesn't like me _or_ my alter ego."

"He doesn't know either one of you, not really," she reminded him, holding his gaze, "I just thought I'd let you know, in case he tries to find Green Arrow to tell him to stay away from me."

At that, he couldn't help but chuckle. "Well, that would be an interesting encounter. Not very likely to happen, but it would be interesting."

Smiling softly, she shrugged a shoulder, "I did my best to cover for you, you know, as your unofficial sidekick, so you should be okay."

Oliver smiled and kissed her forehead. "Well, I appreciate it." Maybe having sidekick wasn't so bad after all.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a sequel to [Five Times Chloe Met Oliver and One Time She Met Green Arrow.](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=chloeas&keyword=Fic+-+five+times&filter=all) and [Five Times Chloe and Oliver Surprised Each Other.](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=chloeas&keyword=Fic%20-%20five%20times%20part%202&filter=all)

Title: Five Times Oliver Needed a Sidekick and One Time Chloe Needed a Hero.  
Authors: chloeas and dl_greenarrow  
Rated: PG-13  
Disclaimer: Not ours. Don't sue. Thanks. :D  
Note: This is a sequel to [Five Times Chloe Met Oliver and One Time She Met Green Arrow.](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=chloeas&keyword=Fic+-+five+times&filter=all) and [Five Times Chloe and Oliver Surprised Each Other.](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=chloeas&keyword=Fic%20-%20five%20times%20part%202&filter=all)

[Part One.](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/441828.html)

When she walked into the Planet, she had no idea the kind of day she had ahead of her. As soon as she stepped into the building, one of her co-workers informed her that their editor wanted to see her, with her heart beating hard against her chest, she made her way into his office, she would have expected to get fired before she would have expected what he was telling her.

Green Arrow was being accused of stealing from one of richest families in Metropolis, second only to the Luthors, and he demanded an explanation, if not from her, from Green Arrow himself. People were calling, emailing, calling the Planet a tabloid, saying that the interview they had printed had been a lie, that the Green Arrow was a thief and not a hero.

After assuring her editor she was going to figure something out, she made her way back to her car where she could speak on the phone with some privacy and called Oliver.

He normally didn't take personal calls while he was at the office, and especially not during a meeting, but when he saw Chloe's name flash across the screen of his cell, he knew he was going to be making an exception to the rule. Not just because it was Chloe, though if he admitted it to himself--he would anyway, but because he knew _why_ she was calling. He left the meeting and headed into his personal office, shutting the door with a word to his assistant not to disturb him, he pressed the phone to his ear. "Hey," he said quietly, waiting uneasily and wondering when he'd started to worry what someone else thought about him.

"Hey, it's me," she said, relieved he had actually picked up, "are you busy?"

"Not too busy for you," he answered, moving over to the window overlooking Metropolis and looking across the way toward the Daily Planet.

With a deep breath, she nodded, leaning back against the seat, "my editor heard about the diamond and he'll have to print the story on it this afternoon, so he is not so much asking but demanding an explanation."

He was relieved to hear there was no judgement or accusation in her voice. Most people would have been accusing. "It didn't belong to Edward Teague," he told her quietly. "He bought it off the black market twenty years ago. It originally belonged to a now-deceased family in Russia."

That made her pause, she didn't think for one second that he didn't have an explanation for what had happened, it wasn't like he needed to steal anything to make money off of it, "okay, maybe if you send me more information on the diamond, I can turn that into a story."

"Aren't you going to ask what I did with the diamond?" His voice was quiet.

"What did you do with it?"

A faint smile touched his lips. "I'm turning it into the Russian museum of history," he told her. "Anonymously of course."

Chloe smiled softly and nodded, "can you do that by the end of the day so I can stumble upon that information?"

"It's already on its way actually. Should probably be arriving..." He glanced at his watch. "Anytime. I contacted the curator of the museum. His name is Mr. Ryan Switzel."

Chloe reached in her purse and picked up a notepad, quickly writing down the name of the curator, "Russian museum of history, he will be hearing from me soon."

"I hope you're not in any trouble because of me." His voice was quiet.

"I wouldn't get in trouble because of you," she assured him, "but my editor will be very happy with me now, thanks to you."

He smiled. "I wanted to call you last night to give you a head's up, but it was really late," he told her, gazing out the window.

"I didn't go to bed until three so you could have called," smiling softly, she relaxed against her seat, "but it's good to know you're doing it for a good reason, especially since Clark will probably be asking about it soon."

Oliver paused at that. "Clark doesn't really have faith in anyone, does he?"

His words made her pause too and she shook her head, "it's not like that, he is just very protective, especially since I don't usually have the best of luck with guys, you just happen to be both of the guys in my life he doesn't know much about."

A memory of a club years ago suddenly flashed through his mind. It had been just before he'd taken off on the cruise that had stranded him on an island for two years, and he'd been in Metropolis. He'd been across the bar when he'd seen a pretty blond struggling with an aggressive guy, and he'd wound up punching the guy in the face before walking her back to her cousin's. He couldn't help but wonder what other troubles she'd had with guys and he frowned a little. "Well, hopefully he'll realize I'm one of the good guys," he murmured, though he wondered deep down if he really _was_. Sure, he helped people out and did what he could both as Oliver Queen and Green Arrow, but there were a lot of bad things from his past. He couldn't help but wonder if he could ever do enough to really atone for all of it.

"I'll make sure he does," she told him, at least she was pretty sure he wasn't a meteor freak or an alien and that was definitely a step up from her previous choices, "he just needs to know you better and I'm sure hearing this about the Arrow will help him like him more."

"Hopefully," he said, his eyes staring blankly into the distance. He couldn't help but wonder what kind of real relationship he could have with Chloe if her best friend in the world disliked him that much. He tried to ignore the tiny niggling fear in his mind that told him she wouldn't be choosing him over her friend.

"Okay," she said, taking a deep breath and looking back in the direction of the Planet, "I need to go back inside, I'll see you later?"

"Yeah, definitely," Oliver said quietly. "Bye."

Frowning slightly, she looked down at the phone for a second, he sounded off, but she was going to have to ask him what was wrong later. Locking her car, she quickly made her way back into the Planet, notepad in hand, she had a lot of research to do to make sure it didn't sound like she had inside information.

* * *

Clark headed into the Planet later that afternoon, a deep frown on his face. He made his way through the familiar maze of desks and over to Chloe's, setting a cup of coffee down in front of her before taking the seat in front of her desk.

Chloe looked from the cup to his face and leaned back against her chair, "before you make any accusations, don't."

He blinked at that, sitting forward. "Chloe, the news is reporting that--"

"I know," she told him, picking up the coffee and sipping on it, she really needed the caffeine, "I'm working on a story that should explain that to everyone." She looked up at her best friend, "he's not the bad guy, Clark."

Clark glanced around, then shifted closer. "Then what's going on?" he asked in a very quiet tone, so not to catch the attention of anyone else around them.

Lowering her voice too, she shifted closer and held his gaze, "the Teagues has stolen the diamond from a Russian family, he stole it back and he is returning it to the Russian history museum because all the members of that family have already passed away."

His eyebrows furrowed at that. "How does he know that?" he whispered, shaking his head a little, his eyes wide.

Chloe shrugged a shoulder and raised her eyebrows, "he's done his research, apparently."

Clark stared at her for a long moment. "Be that as it may, he still broke into someone's home and stole from them, Chloe," he whispered. "Two wrongs don't make a right."

"So you rather someone's heritage be lost forever in some thief's home than be donated to a museum? You can't be serious, Clark."

"He should have called the police," he said quietly.

"You really think the police would remove a diamond like that from the Teagues, Clark? They have the cops in their pockets, that's how they and the Luthors get away with all the things they do, they're too scared to do anything against them." She said with a frown.

He fell silent for a moment, contemplating that, then sighed softly. "Makes you wonder if all rich people are criminals and liars," he murmured.

Chloe frowned a little and gave him a look, "are you insinuating Oliver is a criminal and a liar?"

His eyebrows furrowed. "Oliver's rich?"

"Yeah? You _have_ heard about Oliver Queen, right? He works with your mom."

Clark sat forward a little, shock clear on his face. "You mean the same Oliver Queen who took your cousin Lois out and spilled wine all over her?"

"Yes, that would be the one." She told him, raising her eyebrows, "the same one you met in my dorm then other night."

He stared at her. "So you're dating a guy that dated your cousin?"

"They went on _one_ date, Clark, it didn't work out and that's how Oliver and I met again." She said defensively. She knew Clark was protective and he was just wanting to make sure she didn't get hurt, but sometimes, she wished he'd listen to what she was telling him.

He looked at her uncertainly. "Lois didn't seem to like him very much," he pointed out, though he was clearly backing off the subject somewhat.

" _I_ like him. A lot."

Clark held her gaze for a long moment, then looked down at the floor. "All right. I'll give him a chance, then." His voice was quiet.

"Thank you," she told him quietly, watching him, "I know you're just watching out for me and I appreciate that, but Oliver isn't what the papers say about him and I'd really rather you get to know him before you make any kind of judgment."

He nodded slowly. "For you," he said quietly, watching her back. He glanced around. "I should get back to the farm. I told Mom I'd help her out with some stuff."

"Okay," Chloe paused for a second, "come by tomorrow and have lunch with me?" She asked carefully, watching him.

Clark grinned. "All right. Sounds good."

"I'll see you tomorrow, then," She returned his grin with a smile, as long as she kept on spending time with Clark and making sure he didn't feel left out of her life, she figured he would be okay with Ollie.

 

* * *

Oliver couldn't help but grin at the headline across the front page of The Daily Planet: Modern Day Robin Hood Returns Stolen Diamond to Russian Museum. Beneath which was written: by Chloe A. Sullivan.

He glanced at the elevator as the door slid open and she stepped out. He rose to his feet, holding up the paper so she could see it.

As she stepped into the clock tower, she was surprised to see him standing there and she couldn't help but laugh when she saw what he was holding up, grinning brightly, she shook her head, "second time in less than a month, all thanks to you."

He shook his head. "You wrote the articles, not me."

"You gave me the material," she reminded him as she walked closer, taking the paper from him and placing it over his desk along with her purse before wrapping her arms around his neck, "did the article work for Mr. Arrow?"

His hands moved to rest on her hips, pulling her a little closer. "Are you kidding? I'm considering firing my current Queen Industries P.R. people and hiring you to replace all of them." He smiled, his eyes bright as he gazed at her.

Grinning again, she shook her head, watching him, "I was just exposing the truth, Ollie, this has nothing to do with P.R., even if it did work to improve your alter-ego's image."

He searched her eyes for a long moment, then leaned in and kissed her softly. "You're one hell of a writer," he said seriously. "And have been for some time, apparently." He quirked an eyebrow at her, a mysterious smile on his face.

Squinting slowly, she cocked her head and studied him but kept on smiling, "are you stalking me again? Because let me remind you once more: I'm the reporter, you're the billionaire, you're inverting roles here if you're stalking me and we can't have that."

He chuckled. "For the record, I welcome the stalking, but only if it's you." He smiled. "That being said, I may have possibly accidently stumbled upon a website from Smallville High that produces an online copy of The Torch."

"See, I have no reason to stalk you, if I wanna know something, I can just ask you about it," she teased, sliding her fingers into his hair, "but I guess, since you've seen the Torch, you probably called the asylum and they are on their way to pick me up?"

He closed his eyes for a moment, relaxing a little at her touch. "You do remember you're talking to a guy who's a billionaire CEO by day and dresses in green leather and fires arrows at bad guys from rooftops at night, right?" he murmured.

Chloe raised her eyebrows slowly and watched him, smiling slowly as she noticed him relaxing and leaning his head into her hand, it was nice to see how she affected him because she knew how being close to him affected her, "that still doesn't involve meteor freaks..."

"True," he admitted, slowly opening his eyes to look at her once more. "But frankly I know you do your homework when it comes to stories. So if you say the meteor rocks infect people and give them abilities, I believe it."

That made her eyes wide and she just stared at him for a moment, "really?"

"I keep an open mind," he said quietly.

Pursing her lips together, she couldn't help stop the smile that started spreading on her lips, "well, I have proof, if you are even interested."

Oliver cocked his head to the side. "What kind of proof?" he asked curiously.

"Well... you read the articles so you know how I mentioned the Wall of Weird on a couple of them?"

"Yeah," he said slowly, his eyebrows furrowing.

"My first roommate at the dorm made me take it down when she moved in," Chloe told him with a roll of her eyes, "and I just never put it back up after she moved out, but it still exists in a box and I can show you all of the articles I collected over the years that back up my theory," she paused, watching him, the Wall of Weird was pretty safe for everyone to look at now, any and all articles that made mention of Clark or could be connected to him had been burned a long time ago, when the took the Wall of Weird down from the Torch, "not to mention my personal experiences."

The latter statement gave him pause. "Tell me about those," he said quietly.

"You've read about most of them already," she told him, "why don't you ask me what you want to know?" She was a little nervous about the conversation, but he had already read the worst of it anyway and besides, she only had to be as detailed as she felt like she should be.

Oliver was quiet for a moment. He had read about most of them. "You weren't kidding when you said you had bad experiences with guys," he murmured. "Were you?" He searched her eyes.

Shrugging a little, she shook her head, holding his gaze and smiling slowly, "but as far as I can tell, you're one hundred percent human so... yay?"

"I am," he said softly. "You were really buried alive? And thrown out a third story window?"

"Those are some of the highlights of my high school years," she told him with a nod.

He let out a breath. "You've been through a lot."

Chloe brushed her fingers through his hair again and watched him silently for a moment, she knew it wasn't easy for someone to learn about the things that happened in Smallville, especially if they never knew anything like that existed before, "I made out of it alive, that's all that matters, right?"

"Thank God," he said quietly. He lifted a hand to her face. "Because apparently you're amazingly strong and determined." He smiled, kissing her softly.

"More like stubborn," Chloe told him after returning the kiss.

"I think my description suits better," he informed her.

Chewing on the inside of her lip, she shrugged, "I'm glad you think that way, but I'm afraid of what will happen when you figure out the truth."

He arched an eyebrow. "Meaning what?"

"Meaning I can be pretty stubborn?" Chloe told him, her eyes on his face, the fact that he thought so highly of her scared her, they didn't know each other all that well so far and she didn't want him to see a version of her that didn't exist only to be disappointed later on in their relationship.

"Well, really if you think about it, stubborn and determined mean the same thing," he said with a small smile.

Shaking her head, she raised her eyebrows a little, "I guess it can mean the same, one is under a more positive light than the other, though."

Oliver raised an eyebrow of his own. "Do you usually work this hard to shrug off a compliment or am I special?"

Chloe just stared at him for a moment then pursed her lips together, "I just don't want you to get the wrong impression just because the Smallville stories sound so extraordinaire."

"The Smallville stories just backed up the opinion I'd already formed," he told her with a shrug. "You want something to drink?"

Pulling her arms back, she shook her head, "I'm okay, thanks."

He frowned a little as she pulled away. "Okay." His voice was quiet. Despite the fact he'd given her an honest compliment, he felt like he'd done something wrong.

She took a deep breath and dropped her hands to her sides, kicking herself for letting her own insecurities about herself get in the way of what had been a pretty nice conversation up to that point, she had to pull herself together, Oliver was the nicest guy she had ever actually been in a relationship with, even if her total number of relationships was actually just one and half, kinda since she didn't know what to make out of that summer with Jimmy, but still... he was nice and he _was_ complimenting her and she had made things awkward so it was her job to make it better.

"What do you wanna do tonight?"

"I don't know. We could go to dinner, maybe see a movie," he suggested, gazing at her intently. "Or we could order in and watch a movie here. Or just hang out. What do you wanna do?"

"Dinner and hanging out here sounds good," she told him, looking around before holding his gaze.

He smiled at her. "All right. then that's what we'll do."

Relaxing slightly when he smiled at her, she stepped closer again and nodded, "sounds good to me."

Oliver met her gaze for a moment, then placed a soft kiss against her mouth. "Good," he murmured.

With a deep breath, she smiled slowly then kissed him again, placing a hand over his arm and squeezing it gently.

He closed his eyes, sliding one hand up and into her hair, tipping her head back just a little so he could deepen the kiss.

Chloe sighed softly against his lips, moving closer to him and wrapping her free hand around him, they had only really been seeing each other for about ten days now, but Chloe felt like they had been taking the physical part of their new relationship very slow, she knew most of what the tabloids said about Oliver was a lie, but she knew the part about him being a flirt was at least partially true, which was probably why he hadn't been pushing her into anything so she felt like maybe he was waiting for her to make the first move, although she didn't really want to push it too hard in case she was reading the signs wrong and he just didn't want to go any further yet.

Truthfully, Oliver just didn't want to rush things with her. Because things with Chloe felt different to him than they had with other women he'd been involved with. She actually knew his biggest secret and not only kept it secret, but supported it. Supported _him_. Which was a new experience in general. So he slowly pulled away from her after a moment longer, then gently kissed her jaw.

She was disappointed when he broke the kiss but smiled softly, keeping her eyes closed as she felt his lips on her jaw, she slid a hand into his hair again.

He drew in a breath and let it out slowly, sliding a hand down her spine to rest against the small of her back. He kissed the corner of her mouth tenderly, then leaned his forehead against hers.

Opening her eyes, she looked at him, leaning close and kissing him slowly, softly for a moment before pulling back again and smiling at him.

Oliver opened his eyes once more, as well, meeting her gaze. He returned the soft smile. Yeah. There were definitely upsides to have a sidekick.


	3. Five Times Oliver Needed a Sidekick and One Time Chloe Needed a Hero.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a sequel to [Five Times Chloe Met Oliver and One Time She Met Green Arrow](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=chloeas&keyword=Fic+-+five+times&filter=all) and [Five Times Chloe and Oliver Surprised Each Other.](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=chloeas&keyword=Fic%20-%20five%20times%20part%202&filter=all).

Title: Five Times Oliver Needed a Sidekick and One Time Chloe Needed a Hero.  
Authors: [](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/profile)[**chloeas**](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/) and [](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/profile)[**dl_greenarrow**](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/)  
Rated: PG-13  
Disclaimer: Not ours. Don't sue. Thanks. :D  
Note: This is a sequel to [Five Times Chloe Met Oliver and One Time She Met Green Arrow](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=chloeas&keyword=Fic+-+five+times&filter=all) and [Five Times Chloe and Oliver Surprised Each Other.](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=chloeas&keyword=Fic%20-%20five%20times%20part%202&filter=all).

[Chapter One](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/441828.html) \- [Chapter Two](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/448830.html)

Oliver pressed himself flat against the alley wall, listening to the muffled cry from around the corner.

"Shut up, bitch," a voice ordered.

Silently, he pulled an arrow from his quiver and placed it in his bow, his eyes narrowing under the dark glasses. He moved forward without a sound, pulling back on the bow string and stepping around the corner to find a young woman pinned on the ground by two guys, the other standing over her.

"Three against one is hardly a fair fight. I say we even the odds," he said, watching one of them turn toward him just as he let the arrow fly, watching in satisfaction as it embedded itself into the man's shoulder. He screamed in pain, collapsing onto the pavement.

"You," one of the others said, eyes widening.

"Me," he said with a slight nod, moving forward and kicking him off his knees. He didn't even see the third man pull a gun on him before he heard it being cocked.

"Tomorrow's headline: Green Arrow Dies." He smirked.

* * *

Clark was running back to Smallville after going to see Chloe when he heard the woman's cry on his way, without thinking about it, he ran towards the sound, surprised to see Green Arrow himself there. When he seemed to have the situation under control, Clark was going to leave but when he heard the gun being cocked and one of the man's words, he knew the Green Arrow needed help and according to Chloe, he was one of the good guys, even if Clark himself still didn't really believe that.

Regardless, he wouldn't let anyone get hurt, so moving at superspeed, he knocked the gun out of the man's hand at the same time that he pushed the Green Arrow away from him.

Oliver felt himself flying backwards from the force of a shove, and either the guy who shoved him was hopped up on steroids or he was among the super-powered. He found himself laying flat on his back on the ground, staring up in slight disbelief as he spotted none other than _Clark Kent_.

What the hell?

Clark just glanced at the hooded man to make sure he was okay and then proceeded to knock out the two other guys, frowning when he saw the third one bleeding, an arrow sticking out of his shoulder. He didn't like this Green Arrow's method at all, but he was relieved to see that the woman who was being attacked had gotten up and was now running out of the alley and away.

Once the attackers were out of the way, he turned to the Green Arrow again, "are you okay?" He just wanted to make sure.

Oliver slowly got to his feet, not really sure how to respond to that for a moment. "Better than I would have been with a bullet to the chest," he responded, pulling his glasses off and looking at Clark intently.

"That man needs a hosp-" He paused, his eyes widening slowly as he took a good look at the man's face, he just knew he looked familiar at first and then it hit him, " _Oliver_?" He asked, lowering his voice.

"Apparently I'm not the only one with a secret identity around here," he said with a hint of a smirk. Now he understood what Chloe had meant when she's said she'd been doing the sidekick thing for awhile.

He hadn't cared who saw his face while he was helping them because Clark didn't expect anyone to _recognize_ him, most of all, he didn't expect the Green Arrow and Chloe's... friend to be the same person, "does Chloe know?"

"I'd ask the same of you, but I'm pretty sure I already know the answer," Oliver responded, studying him and wondering if he was one of the meteor infected Chloe had researched so much about when she was in high school. "And yes. She knows."

His jaw tightened and he nodded, keeping his eyes on Oliver for a moment before picking up the injured man and easily throwing him over his shoulder, "I'm taking him to Metropolis General, are you going to call the police?"

"I always do," he responded, knowing this had the potential to get ugly considering Clark already didn't like him.

Clark nodded again, looking at the other man for a second before superspeeding away.

Oliver stared after him with wide eyes. "Whoa," he muttered.

***

After dropping the injured man off at the hospital, Clark tried going back to the farm, but he had to go back and and talk to Chloe. He really didn't think her being anywhere near Oliver was a good idea, he didn't think that before but now that he knew he was Green Arrow, he liked that idea even less.

And so he ran back to Metropolis and to Chloe's dorm, this time even stopping outside the door and knocking. He knew she wasn't going to be happy with the subject he was there to talk about, no need to piss her off even more by just walking into her room.

Chloe was asleep when she heard the insistent knocking on her door, after Clark had left, she had taken a quick shower and gone right to bed, between classes, work, Clark and Oliver, she had been exhausted, so exhausted that even after she woke up, it took her a while to realize that the knocking was actually on her door.

Not even bothering to change into something other than her PJs, she opened the door, her hair was everywhere and she was surprised to see Clark on the other side, "since when do you knock?"

"Since now," he said hesitantly, a familiar, worried look on his face. "Sorry to wake you, but we have to talk."

Running her fingers through her hair, she frowned at him and stepped aside so she could come in as she reached for the light switch. Once the lights were on, her eyes widened and she suddenly felt much more awake, "is that blood?"

He glanced down at his hands, grimacing. "Yeah, it is." He drew in a breath and headed into the bathroom to wash it off.

Chloe followed him into the bathroom, frowning, "whose blood is it?"

He turned toward her, his expression serious. "Belongs to a guy that the Green Arrow shot."

"Is he okay?" Her heart was suddenly beating faster against her chest and she wanted to run and grab her phone to make sure Oliver wasn't hurt.

"I think he'll be fine. I took him to the hospital."

"And Green Arrow?" Which was who her initial question had been about, but she didn't expect Clark to get it.

" _Oliver_ is just fine." He dried his hands off and folded his arms across his chest.

She froze, her eyebrows raising slowly and all she could do was stare at Clark for a moment. She knew his secret was safe with her best friend, but she didn't like the look on his face or the tone of his voice, so she couldn't help feeling defensive, even if this was Clark, "you figured it out, then?"

"You could say that," he responded, frowning deeply. "After I knocked him out of the way of a bullet and he saw _me_ , he took off his glasses."

Her eyes widened a little more and she stared at him, "you're sure he's not hurt?"

"He's fine." He sighed and looked down at the floor for a moment. "Why didn't you tell me, Chloe?"  
"For the same reason I didn't tell him about you, Clark," she told him with a frown, hardly believing he was actually asking her that question, "because it's not my secret to tell."

"Yeah, but Chloe, it's _me_." His frown deepened.

At that, she narrowed her eyes, "you can't be serious about this, you really expect me to tell you someone else's secrets? I keep _your_ secret, Clark, why would I betray one of my other friends' trust?"

"He's a little more than a friend, isn't he?" The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. He winced. "That's...not what I meant to say."

It was her turn to cross her arms over her chest as she raised her eyebrows at him, "is that what you're worried about?"

"I'm worried in general, Chloe," he answered, searching her eyes. "Look, I've been doing some reading and Oliver Queen's reputation leaves a lot to be desired, not to mention the guy's just a human and he's going around shooting people at night."

"First of all, what did I tell you about believing what the papers say about him, Clark? You don't even know him, don't judge him by what you read, _you_ should know better than that," she wasn't happy with him at all, and particularly not happy about the accusations he was making, "and second of all, how dare you say 'just human', so because you have your abilities, you're better than he is? Yes, he is human but that doesn't stop him from going out there each night and helping as many people as he can while clearly risking his life for it. He has been doing it for years, Clark and he gets hurt and he puts himself in danger and no it's not as easy as it is for you, but he is doing what he can because just like you, he believes people need help and despite being 'just human' he goes out of his way to help them and save them."

Clark stared at her wide-eyed. "Better than...Chloe, that's not what I meant and you know it." He frowned, a little hurt that she didn't understand what he was saying. "I just mean, it's _not_ safe. And he's out there putting himself in deliberate danger, and he's dragged you into the middle of it. Everyone in this city associates the Green Arrow with Chloe Sullivan now, and how long is it going to be until someone comes after you for what he's doing? And how do you know he's not just using you to make himself look good as some kind of self-appointed hero?"

"Believe me, I don't like the idea of Chloe being in danger because of me, either." Oliver's voice was quiet as he stepped into the dorm room and paused just inside. He glanced at her, offering her an apologetic look. "The door was open."

She had been about to talk when she heard Oliver, sighing softly before turning to look at him, at least he really wasn't hurt, that was a start. She turned back to look at Clark and shook her head, "I'm not in anymore danger than I would be writing any other big stories," she told both of them, "and I'm certainly not in anymore danger than you," she said, looking at Oliver.

Clark frowned and looked away, uncomfortable that Oliver had heard what he had been saying, but only for a second before he straightened himself and crossed his arms tighter over his chest, "you know that's not true, Chloe. All the criminals in town hate the Green Arrow, and you might be the easiest way to get to him."

"Which is why we won't let that happen." Oliver met Clark's eyes.

"You're right about that." Clark said to Oliver.

Chloe, however, rolled her eyes, looking between the two of them in disbelief for a second before shaking her head and walking away, going back to sit on her bed.

Oliver glanced at her briefly, then back at Clark. "Thank you. For saving my life earlier." His voice was quiet, sincere.

Frowning slightly, he looked towards Chloe then nodded at Oliver, "you don't have to thank me, I wouldn't let anyone get hurt."

"Still." He nodded back at the younger man. "That was pretty amazing." He offered Clark a small smile.

Clark sighed softly and shrugged, looking at him, "it was no problem," he glanced towards Chloe again then back at Oliver, "thanks for letting me know it was you, I guess."

Oliver nodded slightly once more. "Well, I guess we can say we're even on that front then." A faint smile tugged at his lips. "But don't worry. Your secret's safe with me."

Nodding a little, he looked at Oliver for a moment then nodded, relaxing slightly, "yours too."

He smiled. "Good to know."

Clark nodded awkwardly and rubbed a hand behind his neck, "we still need to make sure Chloe is safe," he said a little more seriously.

"There's not much that's more important to me," he informed Clark.

After studying Oliver for a moment, he nodded a little, as long as they agreed on that, maybe this guy wasn't all that bad.

Oliver extended his hand. "It's good to have an ally out there."

Clark looked down at his hand and after a moment, uncrossed his arms and took it, shaking it, "yeah, it is," even if he still didn't agree with the guy's methods.

He smiled, then glanced at Chloe, not wanting to overstay his welcome or interrupt anymore of the two best friends' conversation. "Talk to you tomorrow?"

Chloe frowned a little at that and raised her eyebrows at Oliver, "you're leaving?"

"Well, I sort of interrupted," he said with a slight shrug.

With a soft sigh, Clark shook his head, "no, it's ok, I better get back to the farm," he said quietly, looking at Chloe and feeling like she'd rather be around Oliver then than around him, he knew she wasn't going to be happy with what he said earlier.

She frowned a little and took a deep breath, looking between Clark and Oliver as she got up and walked towards them, "It's three in the morning, how about I talk to both of you tomorrow?"

Oliver winced at that. He hadn't realized what time it was when he'd come over. It had just been his first instinct. "Right." He nodded quickly, brushing a soft kiss against her cheek before nodding at the other man. "Clark." He headed for the door.

Clark drew in a breath and watched him go. "Night, Chlo," he said softly.

Chloe nodded a little at Oliver and watched him leave before turning to Clark, watching him for a moment, "night, Clark."

He smiled faintly, then sped away.

Sighing softly, she locked the door and turn the light off before making her way back to her bed, she'd deal with this whole mess in the morning.

* * *

Clark stood nervously on Chloe's doorstep the next morning, holding a latte he'd gotten from the coffee shop on the corner. When the door opened, he smiled and held it out to her. "Morning."

Chloe raised her eyebrows, watching him, she knew it would be one of them, she was glad Clark had at least waited until ten to come by, considering he was usually up by five, she knew how big an effort that had been on his part.

She took the coffee and smiled slightly at him, nodding, "morning."

At her smile, he relaxed a little. "This a good time?" he asked, resisting the urge to look past her and see if she was alone.

"He's not here," she told him, making room for Clark to come inside the room, he wasn't exactly smooth, but he was Clark, she didn't expect him to be.

At that, he relaxed even more, stepping inside and exhaling slowly, turning to face her once the door was shut behind them. "I'm sorry."

Chloe nodded slowly, sipping on her coffee and leaning back against her desk, "did you change your mind about him?"

Clark paused for a moment. "I meant sorry that I upset you, and sorry that I wasn't more open-minded."

"That's a start," she said quietly, no harshness in her voice, she knew it wasn't easy for Clark to accept changes so this really was as good a start as she could hope for.

He offered her a small smile. "You trust him, right?"

"Yeah, I do," Chloe sat her coffee down and cocked her head a little, "and I know this isn't easy for you, Clark, so I appreciate what you said to him last night."

He nodded slightly and let out a breath. "He knows my secret. Well, part of it anyway." There was a hint of uneasiness in his voice.

Raising her eyebrows slowly, she nodded, "I got that much from last night, what does he know?"

"That I can stop a bullet with my bare hand and run faster than anyone else on Earth." He paused, adding a silent, almost, as he thought about Bart.

Nodding, she took a deep breath, looking up at him, "I know this is scary for you, but I don't think it will be a problem, I mean, he willingly exposed himself to you, right?"

Clark paused. "Yeah," he admitted with a slight nod.

Chloe nodded, "he recognized you and he knows I trust you so he probably figured it'd be okay for you to know."

He nodded slightly, as well, relaxing at her reassurance. "Yeah, you're probably right."

"I'll talk to him," she promised, "but I know you have nothing to worry about."

He smiled at her. "Thanks, Chlo." His voice was quiet and he hesitantly stepped closer to her and wound his arms around her in a hug.

Chloe stood up straight and returned the hug, sighting softly, "honestly, I'm just glad I don't have to keep secrets from either one of you anymore."

Clark rested his chin on top of her head. "Just be careful, okay?" he said softly.

"You too," she told him, resting her cheek against his chest, "especially if you're letting people see who you are when you save them."

"That was sort of an accident."

"Still," she told him, looking up at him, "how about we're all more careful?"

"Won't get any arguments from me," he told her, looking down at her with a soft smile.

After smiling at him, she nodded, patting his back, "and maybe we can all have dinner sometime so the two of you can get to know each other better?"

"Sure." He wasn't excited about it, but he'd do it for Chloe. "I don't mean to rush off, but I've still got work to do on the farm. Lunch tomorrow?"

"Lunch tomorrow," she agreed, watching him, "and I'll talk to you later."

Nodding, Clark gave her a brief, affectionate squeeze, then headed away.

***

She had gone to work after Clark left and after a couple of emails between her and Oliver, they had agreed he was picking her up from work around seven and they would decide where to go from there. Of course she had gotten caught up with work and it took a call from him to remind her that it was seven and she was supposed to meet him outside.

Chloe quickly gathered her things and made her way out the front door of the Planet, not surprised to find him already there, waiting for her.

He smiled at her, amusement clear in his eyes. "You work too hard."

Shrugging a shoulder, she smiled a little, adjusting her coat, "people come and go all day long, it's hard to tell what time it is in there, I told you that."

"So basically the Daily Planet has its own time-space continuum?" he teased.

"Exactly," she grinned softly, stepping closer and kissing his cheek, "sorry I kicked you out last night, by the way," she had meant to tell him that earlier but kept forgetting to whenever she replied to his emails.he

"You didn't. I was already leaving," he reminded her, offering her his arm as he led her toward his car.

Nodding, she took his arm, "I just figured Clark would be upset if you stayed."

"Right," he murmured, pulling open the passenger side door for her. "So have you thought about what you want to do for dinner?"

Frowning a little, she got into the car and shrugged, "I guess we can just order something?" She asked, waiting for him to get into the car too.

He slid into the driver's seat and fastened his seatbelt. "Sure, whatever you want," he told her, starting the car.

After doing the same, she nodded and glanced over at him, "I figured it'd be easier to be inside if we needed to talk."

Oliver didn't like the way that sounded, his chest tightening a little. "Right." He nodded, staring out the windshield, his fingers tightening on the steering wheel a little.

Chloe frowned a little at his reaction, watching him quietly for a moment, "what is it?"

"Nothing," he said softly. "Do you want to go to my place or yours?" he asked, his voice very quiet.

"Yours is closer," she told him, still frowning, she didn't want him to have to drive all the way into campus.

"Okay," he murmured, swallowing hard as he drove them toward the clocktower. When they arrived, he slowly turned off the car engine, but made no move to get out of the car. "So, uh, what is it you want to talk about?" He tried to brace himself for the worst, but he wasn't even sure that was possible.

Turning slightly on her seat, she only frowned more as she tried to read his expression, "what do you think this is about, Oliver?"

Right. He drew in a breath and let it out slowly. "If I had to guess? Clark apparently talked some sense into you." He didn't look at her. Couldn't, actually.

"And?" Her stomach was suddenly very tight.

"And I get it." His voice was quiet. "It is dangerous, and my reputation is less than desirable. You do deserve better." His heart was beating quickly in his chest. "So I get it."

Holding her breath, she just stared at him for what felt like a long time, she knew what he was saying, but it had been so far from what she was going to say, she felt it hard to get over the shock, not to mention the fact that her chest was hurting suddenly, "you think I don't wanna see you anymore?" Tightening her jaw, she did her best not to show how much his assumption was hurting her.

"Isn't that what this is about?" he asked uncertainly, slowly turning his head to look at her, a myriad of emotions flickering through his eyes.

" _No_ ," she said firmly, her heart beating fast, "is that what _you_ want?" She asked nervously, even if she was afraid of his answer.

"Of course not," he said without hesitation, his eyebrows furrowing.

With a deep breath, she leaned sideways against the seat, shaking her head, "then what made you think that in the first place?"

Oliver paused, leaning against his own seat and gazing back at her. "Fear, I guess," he admitted quietly.

Shaking her head, she shifted on her seat, watching him, "regardless of how Clark may or may not feel about you, I care about you, I wish you'd believe that," she couldn't help feeling hurt that he would think that she would let Clark make her decisions about their relationship for her, or that she didn't care about him enough that she would just let go of whatever it was that they had because she was scared.

He hesitantly reached out and took her hand. "Fear makes people irrational," he said softly. "Especially when it comes to someone they really care about." He searched her eyes, leaning his head back against the seat. "Not a lot of good things have happened in my life, and when something...or someone...good comes along, I can't help but be a little afraid that it's not going to last. Because it usually doesn't." He swallowed hard.

Holding her breath, she watched him for a moment, holding his gaze then looking down at their hands when she felt her eyes getting teary, she shook her head and took a deep breath, "I'm not planning on going anywhere," she said quietly.

People usually didn't plan it, he thought, though he didn't say it aloud. He simply nodded, then lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it softly, shutting his eyes for a long moment and relaxing a little for the time being.

She took the opportunity that he had his eyes closed to wipe her face quickly, hating herself for being such a girl and for suddenly feeling very insecure about this whole thing. What if he decided it was better to push her away because he was afraid she was going to leave? It was what she usually did, but she hadn't considered it with Oliver until then, what if it was smarter to just end it now before it got worse? If he was having doubts, there had to be a reason for it.

"You can take me back if you want to."

He opened his eyes once more, the breath catching in his throat at both her words and at the hint of tears he spotted in her eyes. "What?" he whispered, tightening his hand around hers ever-so-slightly.

With a deep breath, she shook her head, watching him, "It sounds like you have some things you need to figure out and if you're thinking about this there has to be something wrong." She said quietly.

Oliver felt like she'd slapped him and he stared at her for a moment, unable to speak. Right, he thought, his heart sinking. She had realized there was something wrong with him, but she wanted him to feel like it was his decision so she didn't hurt him. He swallowed hard, turning to stare out the windshield.

Chloe stared back at him, watching him for a second then sighing deeply, she was making things worse, or maybe she had been right. She didn't know what to think, just a few minutes ago then were fine and then she felt like everything just fell apart right in front of her eyes and she wasn't even sure what had happened.

After a moment, she reached down for her purse and picked it up before opening the door and getting out of the car, she couldn't think clearly, her chest was tight and she felt like she couldn't breathe so she had to get out of there.

He was out of the car the second his brain registered she was going to walk out of his life if he didn't at least try and stop her. He quickly rounded the length of the car and stepped in her path, shaking his head. "I know I'm screwed up, Chloe. Believe me, I know it. But I care about you and I can't..." He swallowed hard, searching her eyes for a moment, his chest tight with fear. Without thinking about it, he slid his arms around her, pulling her closer and pressing his lips to hers, trying to express what he felt because the words simply escaped him.

She stilled for a moment, her eyes wide as she broke the kiss just long enough for her to take a deep breath before kissing him again, wrapping her arms tightly around him.

A soft groan escaped him as she reciprocated, and he tightened his arms around her as well, kissing her urgently as they stood pressed closely together.

Chloe kissed him just as urgently, not pulling back until she absolutely had to breathe again, panting, her heart still beating fast against her chest, she could feel his beating just as hard as she kept her arms as tightly as possible around him, her eyes on his face as she tried to catch her breath and make sense of what was going on.

"I don't want to lose you," he whispered.

"I don't wanna lose you either," she said quietly, lifting a hand to touch his face.

Oliver leaned into her touch, searching her eyes for a moment, then leaning in and kissing her again. He didn't want to lose her. And he'd never uttered those words to anyone before, not even to Mercy. He hadn't wanted to lose her either, but he'd sabatoged things between them out of his own fears. He wasn't going to make that mistake with Chloe. Because as much as he'd cared for Mercy, his feelings for Chloe were much deeper and more vivid.

She kissed him back, sliding her hand behind his neck as she did, her other hand wrapping around his shirt as she held on to him, she pulled back after a moment, "let's go upstairs," she told him breathlessly, her fingers sliding into his hair.

He closed his eyes at her light touch, nodding slowly. "I think that sounds like a good idea."

With a nod, she leaned closer and kissed him again, running her fingertips through his hair and leaning into him again. She didn't know what they were doing or where they were going but as long as they didn't want to lose each other, she figured that was a good start to whatever it was that they were doing.


	4. Five Times Oliver Needed a Sidekick and One Time Chloe Needed a Hero.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a sequel to [Five Times Chloe Met Oliver and One Time She Met Green Arrow.](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=chloeas&keyword=Fic+-+five+times&filter=all) and [Five Times Chloe and Oliver Surprised Each Other.](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=chloeas&keyword=Fic%20-%20five%20times%20part%202&filter=all)

Title: Five Times Oliver Needed a Sidekick and One Time Chloe Needed a Hero.  
Authors: chloeas and dl_greenarrow  
Rated: PG-13  
Disclaimer: Not ours. Don't sue. Thanks. :D  
Note: This is a sequel to [Five Times Chloe Met Oliver and One Time She Met Green Arrow.](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=chloeas&keyword=Fic+-+five+times&filter=all) and [Five Times Chloe and Oliver Surprised Each Other.](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=chloeas&keyword=Fic%20-%20five%20times%20part%202&filter=all)

[Part One.](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/441828.html) | [Part Two.](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/448830.html) | [Part Three.](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/457056.html) |

Chloe was incredibly glad when she woke up next morning to remember it was Saturday, a sleepy smile appearing on her lips as she felt his arm and leg tightly around her. She didn't know exactly how they had ended up in bed, between what she was pretty sure had been their first fight and deciding to sleep together, everything had been kind of a blur, all she remembered was being grateful she had started on birth control a while back and that he had remembered to use protection.

Everything he had done to her had been mind-blowing, her body seemed to respond to every little touch and she had never felt so amazing in her life before, she had never felt so _beautiful_ before, and it was all because of him.

She shifted as slowly as possible, turning towards him and smiled when he tightened his hold on her, raising her eyebrows when she saw he was actually awake, "hey," she said quietly.

Oliver smiled softly at her. "Good morning," he said just as quietly, lifting his hand to touch her cheek, stroking it gently. He had no idea what time they'd fallen asleep after making love for what felt like hours, and yet it was still not enough time in his mind.

"Morning," she said with a smile, leaning into his touch. She had never woken up with anyone like this before, she always thought it would be awkward and embarrassing, but it felt comfortable, like everything else with him.

He shifted closer to her, kissing her softly and gently tucking some hair behind her ear. Tess Mercer aside, he'd never spent an entire night with anyone and woken up with them in the morning. It was still different. More natural somehow. He leaned his forehead against hers, closing his eyes.

Chloe turned until she was facing him and wrapped an arm around him, rubbing her hand over his back. She really liked Oliver, in fact, if she was honest with herself, her feelings for him might go way beyond 'like', she just wasn't ready to admit it to herself yet, it was too early in their relationship and although she felt like he had strong feelings for her too, it was probably better that they took one step at a time.

Oliver placed a soft kiss against her forehead, content to just stay in bed with her in his arms. "You work today?" he murmured.

Shaking her head, she closed her eyes, "I don't _have_ to," she was caught up with her deadlines and weekends were an optional thing at the Planet, "do you?"

"Not til patrolling tonight," he told her, rubbing her arm gently.

She smiled a little and nodded, sighing softly and closing her eyes again then pausing, her eyes widening slightly as she opened them again, "crap, I forgot about Clark..."

His eyebrows furrowed. "Uh, what about Clark?"

Chloe looked around the room, trying to find a clock, "I was supposed to talk to you and we were supposed to meet him for lunch."

That caught him off guard. He shifted slightly on the bed, reaching out and picking up his watch off the nightstand. "It's a little after nine," he told her before setting the watch down again.

"Oh," she smiled a little, relaxing again, "good, we have time, then."

Oliver grinned. "Plenty of time," he agreed.

Chloe grinned back, cupping his face in her hand and brushing her thumb over his cheek, silent for a moment, "lets never do that again?"

"I was hoping we could do that more frequently."

Blushing slightly, she smiled and shook her head, "no, I meant... whatever it was that happened at the parking lot yesterday, the things before..." after a second's hesitation, she slid her leg between his, "this."

He inhaled sharply at her movement. "Right, that part," he murmured, swallowing hard. "I agree with that."

Hugging him to her, she nodded, "okay, good," she knew they would fight every now and then, but that had hurt so much, and it had been so confusing, it was worse than a fight, it was just their insecurities running wild and she didn't know what would have happened if he hadn't stopped her from walking away.

Without really thinking about it, Oliver lowered his mouth to her neck and kissed her there softly.

Chloe shivered a little and smiled, relaxing slightly.

He smiled against her skin and then lifted his head up to look at her.

She bit down on her bottom lip then grinned a little, "we have time, right?"

He groaned softly at the sight of her lip between her teeth, unable to resist the urge to lean in and kiss her softly. "We have time," he murmured.

Laughing quietly at his reaction, she took his bottom lip between her teeth and sucked slowly on it, her eyes on his face as she did.

"Chloe," he groaned, sliding his arms beneath her and flipping them so she was laying on the bed beneath him.

Wrapping her legs around his, she grinned softly at him, "we should definitely do _this_ more often."

Oliver grinned back at her. "Glad we're in agreement."

* * *

The rest of the day had been uneventful, or uneventful for them anyway. Lunch with Clark had gone well if a little awkward, but Chloe felt like they had actually gotten to know each other a little better and by the end, she was pretty sure Clark was more confident that he could trust Oliver.

Of course the remark about her wearing work clothes on a Saturday had made everyone slightly uncomfortable, but she liked to think that Clark would forget about that, she knew she did her best to forget about anything remotely related to his sex life.

They had spent the rest of the afternoon together and when Oliver announced he had to get ready to go patrolling, she decided to go to the Planet after all and do some research for Monday, she was completely focused on it when her phone rang and she frowned a little, it was Oliver's third cellphone, the untraceable one that he kept with him when he was out patrolling, he had only been gone for about one hour so she didn't expect him to be done already, which made her wonder why, exactly, he was calling her.

"Hey."

When he spoke, his voice was barely audible, his distorter turned off as he kept his back pressed firmly against the wall, keeping low to the ground. "Tell me you're near a computer," he whispered.

"I'm sitting in front of one, are you okay?"

His heart was pounding heavily in his chest. "I'm trapped," he whispered, his eyes darting around the darkened room. He fell silent as heavy footsteps passed by the door. He swore under his breath.

With wide eyes, she stood up, "where are you? I'll come get you."

"No, listen," he whispered. "I need you to find schematics to City Hall."

Sitting back down, she frowned, "okay, any particular area?"

"The Northwest corridor, just off the Mayor's office." He swallowed hard.

With a deep breath, she nodded, starting to type as she squinted at the computer, "give me a second."

Oliver drew in a breath, as well, clutching onto the documents in his hand.

A second later, she nodded, watching the screen closely and turning the map, "okay, if you're at the end of the corridor there should be a door to your right and a door to your left, the door on the right leads to a room that has a balcony, and the door to the left has an AC vent, I don't know how big that is or if you could fit into it or not."

He nodded slightly even though she couldn't see him, keeping crouched low as footsteps moved past the mayor's office once more. Then he waited a few seconds before approaching the door, crossbow at the ready, armed with minute-long paralyzing arrows, just in case. He cautiously pulled the door open and headed down the corridor and toward the door on the right, pausing outside long enough to listen and make sure no one was on the other side of it. He slipped inside, shutting it behind him once more and quickly heading for the balcony. "Meet me on the roof of the Planet in ten minutes," he whispered. "Thanks, Sidekick." There was a small smile on his lips as he headed outside.

She let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding and rubbed a hand over her face, nodding, "I'll see you there."

Ten minutes later, he landed on the rooftop of the Planet, pushing his hood back just as the door at the top of the stairs opened.

Chloe looked around for him, cellphone in hand and a worried look on her face, "what happened to you?"

"Apparently the schematics I had memorized of City Hall were outdated ones," he told her, pulling off his glasses and raking a hand through his hair.

For a long moment, all she did was raise an eyebrow at him, "how about you let _me_ do the research from now on?"

Oliver offered her a bright grin, then held out a folder. "I think you might find this interesting."

Taking the folder, she raised her eyebrows slowly, watching him for a full moment before opening it and starting to go through the documents.

"Apparently our not so honorable mayor is embezzling money from the city."

Squinting, she read the papers slowly, her eyes widening as she did, "Oliver this is... huge."

He nodded a little, glancing out over the city and letting out a breath. "Yeah, I know."

"What are you doing with it?" She asked quietly, looking from the folder to him, her eyes slightly wide.

"Well, I had to prove it," he said nonchalantly.

"For?"

"Because he's a fraud and needs to be booted out of office?" There was confusion in his voice.

Nodding, she took a deep breath, "but how are you going to expose him?"

He raised his eyebrows at her, falling silent.

"Oh," her eyes widened and she looked back down at the papers, "Oliver, that's..." with a deep breath, she looked back at him, "thank you."

He smiled a bit. "Thank you for helping me get out of there."

Shaking her head, she started smiling slowly, "you have no idea how much you're helping me with all these stories."

Oliver studied her a moment. "Do you know the kind of good you're doing by writing the articles?" he asked seriously.

Chloe pursed her lips together and shrugged softly, "I'm just doing my job."

"You're shedding light on things people wouldn't otherwise know was going on."

"The only reason I'm having access to all of it is because of you," she said sincerely.

"You're the only one I trust with it," he said just as sincerely.

She sighed softly and stepped closer, placing a hand over his shoulder as she tiptoed, smiling at him before kissing him softly.

Oliver responded to the kiss instantly, winding an arm around her waist and pulling her against him. He kissed her deeply, then rested his head against hers, closing his eyes for a moment. "Having a good night?" he asked softly.

"Better now that I know you're not about to get killed or arrested," she smiled softly, reaching up and cupping his face.

He couldn't help but grin at her. "It's going to take a little more than an overly-secure City Hall to bring me down." His voice was light.

Laughing softly, she nodded, cocking her head and wrapping her arm around him, "is that so?"

"Definitely," he told her, amusement in his eyes as he dipped his head and kissed her again.

Grinning softly, she kissed him back, holding him to her, she meant it when she said that she was feeling better now, knowing that he was out there, being Green Arrow was going to take some getting used to, especially since last night, he had almost gotten shot, if it wasn't for Clark, he wasn't even going to be there.

"I like this a lot," he murmured, cupping her cheek in his hand.

"I do too," she told him, leaning into his touch.

He searched her eyes for a moment, kissing her again slowly. "What time are you heading home?"

Chloe took a deep breath, "soon? Are you done for the night?"

Oliver nodded slightly. "Yeah. Mind if I spend the night?" he asked quietly.

She couldn't help but smile, shaking her head, "I was just about to invite you," raising her eyebrows a little, she cocked her head, "if you don't mind sharing my twin bed."

He smiled back at her, relaxing. "I don't mind," he assured her.

"Do you wanna go back and change and I'll pick you up at the clock tower?"

"Sounds good," he whispered, moving his thumb lightly over her cheek and pressing a kiss to her forehead.

Leaning closer, she kissed him again and sighed softly, smiling up at him, "I'll see you downstairs, then."

"See you then," he agreed with a wink, sliding his glasses back on, and then his hood.

Chloe stepped over to the edge of the roof as he jumped off, holding her breath as she watched him land safely on the roof of the clock tower. Smiling softly she took her head and with the folder still clutched tightly in her hand, she made her way back to the basement.

 

* * *

Twenty minutes later he was following her into her dorm room, his hand curled around hers. "You have homework?" he asked softly, realizing he'd been dominating her time lately and he'd never thought to ask that before.

Shaking her head, Chloe shrugged a shoulder, "I usually do it from work or between classes," she told him as she set the folder and her purse down on her desk before kicking off her shoes, "never know how busy the week is going to be."

He watched her, then slid his own shoes off. "How do you keep up with everything?" he asked quietly.

Shrugging a shoulder, she smiled a little, "I drink lots of coffee?"

Oliver couldn't help but smile at that. "So _that's_ where the addiction comes from," he teased.

"Well, I wouldn't call it addiction," she joked, shrugging her jacket off and placing it on the back of her chair, "more like survival."

"Maybe you need a vacation. Spring break's coming up in a few weeks, right?"

Chloe nodded and shrugged a shoulder, "yeah, but I still have work."

He gazed at her for a moment. "I think Perry might let you take a break if you wanted one."

Raising her eyebrows, she watched him, "I guess, if I requested vacation time, depending on what is going on work-wise."

Oliver stepped toward her, sliding his arms around her. He gazed into her eyes. "We could go away for a few days," he said softly.

Her eyes widened slightly in surprise as she watched Oliver, "we could?"

"Yeah, if you wanted." He kissed her softly.

After returning the kiss, she raised her eyebrows, "go where?"

"Wherever you want," he whispered.

Chewing on the inside of her lip, Chloe watched him for a moment, everything with him felt so new, she had never had a guy say things like that to her or want to be with her as much as he did, or offer her things like he did, it made her heart beat faster and her knees go weak, but she couldn't help the smile that insisted on appearing in her face, "I'll get back to you on that?"

He smiled back at her without hesitation. "Sure thing," he said, nodding.

After returning the smile, she nodded and started looking around her room for her PJs, wishing she had something more appropriate to wear to bed, "maybe you could show me around Star City?"

That surprised him. "Really?" Out of all the places in the world she could choose from, she wanted to go to Star City? He wasn't sure if she was serious or not.

Finding her PJs, she reached down to pick then up before turning to face him again, brushing her hair from her face and shrugging, "yeah? I mean, you know my hometown, I should know yours, right?"

A soft smile touched his lips. "You're something else, you know that?"

Grinning softly, Chloe raised her eyebrows at him, "what? It sounds fair." And it only made sense in her head, she knew Star City was important to him, she should know as much about it as she could.

Oliver dipped his head and kissed her lightly. And that was part of why he felt such a connection to her. What was fair mattered to her. And that made her even more special. "I like that idea."

"We should make it a plan, then," she suggested quietly, wrapping her arms around his neck even as she held her shorts and t-shirt in her hand.

He smiled, nodding slightly. "We will."

With a smile, she tiptoed again and kissed him once more.

Oliver kissed her in return, sliding his hands down her back slowly.

Leaning into him, she dropped her PJs and reached up, cupping the back of his neck in one of her hands as she deepened the kiss.

He sat down on the edge of her bed, pulling her with him without breaking their kiss. "Do you have early class?" he asked softly a moment later.

Chloe laughed quietly and shook her head, "you do realize tomorrow is Sunday, right?"

He blinked at that. "It is?"

Nodding, she moved both her legs until they were across his lap but stayed on the bed, "yep, no classes, no work."

"Apparently my mind's been on something besides what day of the week it is," he murmured.

"Is that a good thing?"

Oliver grinned and kissed her softly. "What do you think?"

Grinning, she wrapped her arms around his neck and nodded, "getting the CEO's mind off of work and week days sounds nice to me."

"Is that another one of the duties of a sidekick?" he teased. "Cause I have to say, it may be my favorite."

With a smirk, she shifted closer until their noses were touching, "no, that's just a Chloe duty."

His eyes drifted shut as he pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth. "Still my favorite," he whispered.

Turning her head slightly, she cupped the back of his neck and smiled, watching his face for just a second before whispering, "mine too," and kissing him.

Oliver slowly reclined on the bed, keeping her close to him and returning the kiss. Somehow, he had a feeling neither one of them would be sleeping for a few hours.


	5. Five Times Oliver Needed a Sidekick and One Time Chloe Needed a Hero.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a sequel to [Five Times Chloe Met Oliver and One Time She Met Green Arrow](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=chloeas&keyword=Fic+-+five+times&filter=all) and [Five Times Chloe and Oliver Surprised Each Other.](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=chloeas&keyword=Fic%20-%20five%20times%20part%202&filter=all).

Title: Five Times Oliver Needed a Sidekick and One Time Chloe Needed a Hero.  
Authors: [](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/profile)[**chloeas**](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/) and [](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/profile)[**dl_greenarrow**](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/)  
Rated: PG-13  
Disclaimer: Not ours. Don't sue. Thanks. :D  
Note: This is a sequel to [Five Times Chloe Met Oliver and One Time She Met Green Arrow](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=chloeas&keyword=Fic+-+five+times&filter=all) and [Five Times Chloe and Oliver Surprised Each Other.](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=chloeas&keyword=Fic%20-%20five%20times%20part%202&filter=all).

[Chapter One](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/441828.html) \- [Chapter Two](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/448830.html) \- [Chapter Three](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/457056.html) \- [Chapter Four](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/463880.html)

He winced as he felt the sharp blade against his back and he spun quickly, kicking his leg out and sweeping the man's feet out from beneath him in one swift move. Then he turned back to the other man, firing an arrow at him even as the man and woman he'd just saved took off running. He watched in satisfaction as the guy fell to the ground, then he turned his attention back to the man with the knife who was struggling to his feet once more.

With one well-placed punch to the man's nose, the guy fell to the ground, as well, unconscious. He kicked the knife away and called the police, giving the location before firing an anchor line and holding on tightly as he was propelled upwards and onto the roof.

From there he was back on the rooftop of the clocktower within moments, pushing his hood back and heading inside, a smile touching his lips as he spotted Chloe curled up on his sofa. A few days ago, he'd given her the code to get inside, telling her she was welcome anytime.

Because it was true.

"Hey," she smiled, sitting up and putting the book she had been highlighting aside, "I was working late and I figured you'd be home soon so... I came by." After a long discussion with herself whether he meant it or not that she should actually come by any time she wanted she figured she would give it a try, she hadn't seen him in almost two days because they had both been so busy and if after his patrol was the only time they could see each other, then she should take the risk.

"I'm glad you did," he said sincerely, removing his glasses and heading over to her. He kissed her softly on the lips. "I've missed you." And that was true, too.

Returning the kiss, she smiled up at him, "I missed you too," she said just as sincerely.

Oliver kissed her forehead. "Just let me shower and get changed and you've got me the rest of the night."

Grinning softly, she nodded, "take your time."

He smiled back at her and turned to head to his secret room.

As soon as he turned, her eyes widened and she was on her feet in less than a second, the back of his costume had been slashed open and she was pretty sure she saw blood under it, "what happened?"

He winced, having momentarily forgotten about it, before turning to face her. "Didn't know the second guy had a knife," he admitted. "I dont think it's too deep."

Frowning, she walked behind him even as he turned and looked inside his vest, "it doesn't look too deep, but it needs to be cleaned and it's pretty long."

He watched her for a moment, then slowly unzipped his vest, shrugging out of it.

Chloe raised her eyebrows a little, she had half expected him to protest her taking care of his cut, but she didn't say anything when he didn't, she just pulled the vest down his arms and cocked her head, eyes on the cut for a moment longer, "do you have anything I can clean it with?"

He nodded slightly. "There's peroxide in the bathroom," he told her, meeting her eyes.

Holding his gaze for a moment, she nodded before disappearing down the hall.

Oliver watched her go, then headed into his Arrow room, changing out of his leather pants and into a pair of sweat pants. Then he headed into the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water and opening it, taking a long drink.

Chloe came back a minute later, having to go through his bathroom cabinets before actually finding what she needed, "okay, let me clean that and then you can take a shower."

He set down his water bottle and turned to face her. "All right."

"Are you okay other than that?" She asked worriedly.

Oliver lifted a hand to her face. "I'm fine," he promised.

Chloe nodded, watching him then stepping closer and kissing him softly, he didn't seem to be in pain and the cut wasn't deep, but still, she worried.

He gently brushed his fingers against her cheek, returning the kiss. "I promise," he whispered, sensing that she was still worried.

"Okay," she nodded, looking at him then pulling back, "I have something to show you after this," she smiled a little then walked around him, picking up a cotton ball and soaking it in peroxide before starting to clean it gently.

He gritted his teeth ever-so-slightly, drawing in a breath. "What do you have to show me?" he asked curiously, taking a drink of his water once more.

Wincing a little and leaned closer and kissed the base of his neck, "sorry," she said but didn't stop cleaning his wound, "something I found, don't worry, it's not bad."

After a moment, he craned his neck to look at her, his eyes filled with warmth.

Cocking her head, she smiled slightly at him, every time he looked at her like that, she felt her knees weaken under her, "what?"

"I'm really glad you're here," he said quietly, holding her gaze.

Pursing her lips together, she nodded a little, "I didn't want to go another day without seeing you."

"Me either." He watched her for a moment, and when she finally set the cotton aside, he turned to face her, lifting his hands up to cup her cheeks before he kissed her softly.

Relaxing slightly, she placed her hands on his sides, rubbing her thumbs against his skin and kissing him back, glad that he felt the same way and genuinely seemed to want her to be there.

"What do you have to show me?" he murmured, placing a kiss against her forehead.

Chloe smiled at him and took his hand, squeezing it before bringing him over to the couch with her, she reached into her bag and pulled out her laptop, opening as she sat down on the couch, waiting for her computer to come out of sleep mode before clicking a couple of time, turning her computer towards him as he sat down next to her.

"Remember this?" It was a picture she had taken, or he had taken of them when she was about thirteen and he was about sixteen outside of the Excelsior school where she had gone with her dad as a favor to his boss to pick up Lex Luthor and the second time Chloe had run into Oliver.

Oliver stared at the picture for a long moment, more than a little surprised. "Yeah, I remember," he said softly, glancing at her sideways. "I can't believe you still have it."

"I have been looking for it for months," she admitted quietly, looking at the picture then back at him, "since that day you showed up at my dorm, looking for Lois, I don't know why, but I wanted to find it and I finally found it on a floppy disc last night."

He met her gaze for a moment before looking at the picture once more. "I never thought I'd see this picture again," he admitted.

Shrugging a little, she nodded, eyes still on the screen, "it's not very good quality, but I emailed you a copy."

A soft smile touched his lips. "It's special," he said quietly. "And proof." He glanced at her sideways.

"Proof?" She raised her eyebrows, cocking her head and watching him.

"That I didn't dream it all in my head," he said with a small smile.

Shaking her head, she placed her laptop over the coffee table and took his hand in hers, "no, it was pretty real, that, the time you showed me the roof of the QI building, the time you rescued me from that slimey idiot in that club..."

He gazed at her for a long moment. "It's funny how things turn out," he murmured. "Isn't it? I mean, we were just kids when we first met."

Nodding, she watched him for a moment, "I know, and what are the odds of us not only running into each other so often, but of us actually remembering each other?"

"For me? Pretty good," he said softly, gazing back at her.

"C'mon," she cocked her head, giving him a look, "you were like, eleven when we first met."

"You were eight," he pointed out.

"You were famous," she reminded him, raising her eyebrows.

"I was alone." His voice was nearly inaudible.

Her face fell and she shifted closer to him, pressing a kiss to his cheek and whispering, "you're not anymore."

Oliver closed his eyes, sliding a hand into her hair and kissing her forehead before leaning his against it. "I know."

With a deep breath, she lifted her free hand to cup his cheek and all of the sudden, she felt like telling him how she really felt about him, tell him that she _loved_ him. They had only been dating for about a month, and with their schedules, they couldn't always see each other, but she knew how she felt, she had never told anyone that before and she was afraid of messing things up if she did tell him, they hadn't really even officially called each other boyfriend and girlfriend and she was afraid she might scare him away if she told him that, so even though she felt like he might need to hear that, she was afraid that he might not react to it the way she expected.

Sighing softly, she closed her eyes too and leaned in, kissing him slowly.

He kissed her back without hesitation. He hadn't felt this intensely connected to another person ever. He slid his hands down to rest on her hips, pulling her closer to him. Things with Mercy had been intense, but also scary. Things with Chloe weren't scary. They just felt _right_. "Stay with me," he whispered.

Wrapping her arms around his neck so she didn't hurt his back, she shook her head, holding his gaze, "I'm not going anywhere," she told him quietly, her heart beating fast against her chest, hoping he knew she meant it, she was pretty sure if she lost him, her heart would be broken in a way that she couldn't possibly amend ever again.

"Me either," he said just as quietly, searching her eyes. If she wanted him gone, she'd have to be the one to end it. Because he wouldn't.

Nodding, she cupped his face in her hand again, watching him, "I don't wanna be with anyone else, and I don't wanna be anywhere else," she didn't know if she was making any sense, but she felt like she had to reassure him somehow.

He turned his head and kissed the palm of her hand softly before meeting her eyes once more. "I don't want to be with anyone else either," he said quietly.

Taking a deep breath, she nodded, watching him, a slight smile appearing on her lips, "okay," she whispered. Words or no words, that was what mattered.


	6. Five Times Oliver Needed a Sidekick and One Time Chloe Needed a Hero.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a sequel to [Five Times Chloe Met Oliver and One Time She Met Green Arrow.](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=chloeas&keyword=Fic+-+five+times&filter=all) and [Five Times Chloe and Oliver Surprised Each Other.](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=chloeas&keyword=Fic%20-%20five%20times%20part%202&filter=all)

Title: Five Times Oliver Needed a Sidekick and One Time Chloe Needed a Hero.  
Authors: chloeas and dl_greenarrow  
Rated: PG-13  
Disclaimer: Not ours. Don't sue. Thanks. :D  
Note: This is a sequel to [Five Times Chloe Met Oliver and One Time She Met Green Arrow.](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=chloeas&keyword=Fic+-+five+times&filter=all) and [Five Times Chloe and Oliver Surprised Each Other.](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=chloeas&keyword=Fic%20-%20five%20times%20part%202&filter=all)

[Part One.](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/441828.html) | [Part Two.](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/448830.html) | [Part Three.](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/457056.html) | [Part Four](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/463880.html) | [Part Five](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/468366.html)

It was another one of those long nights at the Planet, mostly because she had had so many projects to hand in in the past week that she had fallen behind on her work and she had a deadline by nine the next morning and Chloe knew she was useless in the mornings so she figured it was better to stay late and get it done before even going home, besides, that way, she could sleep in and not worry about deadlines.

With another sip of her coffee, she went back to typing, narrowing her eyes slightly as the words started coming to her, her fingers flying over the keyboard as the article started to flow. At that pace, she was going to be done in the next fifteen minutes and then she just had to give it a quick proof-read and she could be on her way to Oliver's. There was no point driving halfway across town when she had a bed that was five times more comfortable to sleep on just two blocks away.

Of course the fact that her boyfriend happened to be the owner of that bed just helped her make that particular decision. And yes, he was officially her boyfriend now, not that they had had a conversation about it, they didn't really have to, they both knew they were in a committed relationship, but just last weekend they were at a restaurant and one of Oliver's business associates stopped them to say hi, that was when he introduced her as his girlfriend. She had joked to him about it afterward and there was some teasing involved, but she had been calling him boyfriend in her head for a few weeks now anyway.

Chloe had been so focused on her article that she didn't even hear the footsteps approaching her. It was almost two in the morning, there shouldn't be anyone besides the security guard in the building and he was usually asleep at his station. Which was why she jumped a good ten inches over her chair when she heard the smooth voice asking, "Miss Sullivan?" Behind her.

Turning quickly on her chair, her eyes widened to see an unfamiliar man standing there, a smirk on his face as he looked down at her, "who wants to know?"

"Mr. Edward Teague has asked me to invite you to his residence, he would very much like to talk to you about the article you wrote about him, the one regarding _his_ diamond?"

"You mean the one he stole?" She said sharply, "isn't he kinda late on this? I wrote that article almost two months ago."

The man shook his head and stepped closer, "Mr. Teague has been out of the country, you see, your article caused some problems with his corporation and he has been traveling through Europe to assure his investors that he is nothing but an honest man."

Smirking, Chloe cocked her head, "and how much money is he feeding them to help them buy that crap?"

"Now, Miss Sullivan, you shouldn't talk about what you don't know. Like that diamond, believing a man who hides behind a mask over a honest man who worked hard to build his empire? You have a lot to learn about journalism."

"And you seriously should consider looking up the word 'honest' on a dictionary."

Narrowing his eyes, the man shook his head and pulled a gun from behind his back, stepping closer suddenly and pressing it to her temple, "I can show you an example, if you would _please_ come with me. Mr. Teague is a busy man and he can't waste time waiting for people like you."

Holding her breath, Chloe stood slowly, she was about to reach for her purse when the man barked "leave it" and nudged her temple with the gun again, "let's get going."

* * *

When he hadn't received a text in response to the last three he'd sent her, Oliver had begun to worry. Either she was still at work--which he knew was a strong possiblity--and she was in the zone; she was asleep at her dorm, which he doubted because she always texted or called to tell him goodnight before she went to bed if they weren't together, or, the option that made his gut tighten with nervousness--she was in trouble.

He attempted to call her--both on her cell phone, and her dorm room phone--and when he didn't get an answer at either place, the knot in his stomach grew larger. He made his way into his secret room, changing clothes into his uniform and heading out of the clocktower. As he made his way onto the roof of the Daily Planet, he looked down below and saw that her little red bug was still there. He tried to tell himself that he was being overly concerned when she was just at work late. But that's when he saw a man with what appeared to be a gun shoving someone into a car. Leaning over the edge to try and get a better look, he inhaled sharply as his night vision glasses focused in on Chloe's familiar form.

"Son of a bitch," he whispered.

* * *

He smirked as he drove the car toward the Teague's mansion at the edge of Metropolis, his gun still trained on her. "You think this will bring the Green Arrow out of hiding? Or does he even care?"

Shrugging a shoulder, Chloe did her best to pretend she wasn't nervous, "probably not until the headlines about how Teague killed a Planet reporter hit the stands, I mean, the guy has no way of knowing you have me so if this is your best plan to lure him in, you should seriously reconsider it. He's not gonna notice I'm missing, you can keep me in that mansion for months." She knew Oliver was going to notice in the next couple of hours. He was going to contact her once he got home from patrolling or at least before he went to bed, they always let each other know they were home and as soon as he realized her purse and car were still at the Planet, he was gonna start looking for her. She just hoped he gave Clark a call, clearly Edward Teague was expecting him.

At that, he chuckled. "I meant lure him out of hiding to avenge your death," he responded with a smirk. "The guy's been feeding you information for awhile now, hasn't he? I think he'll notice his contact at the Planet is dead."

"Avenge my death?" Chloe forced laughter, "I'm just his contact, you really think he cares all that much? I don't even know his real first name, he's not going to care. You seriously got the worst plan ever..."

"Either way." He glanced at her, pressing the barrel of the gun roughly against her ribcage. "It'll still be a fun night. Well. Not so much for _you_..."

Although she couldn't stop herself from wincing, she still managed to glare at him, ignoring her increasing heartbeat as she got more nervous, "do you mind? I'm pretty sure Mr. Teague asked you to deliver me in one piece so he can take care of me himself."

"You'll be in one piece. Although I can say with some certainty that he won't be taking care of you himself." He shrugged and grinned a little. "That's what I'm for. And I'm very good at it."

Rolling her eyes, she shook her head, "at least the Luthors have the decency of torturing their own enemies."

"Mr. Teague has better things to do," he informed her. "But don't worry. When I'm through with you, you'll wish Lionel Luthor had managed to blow you up a few years ago."

"Ah you've done your research, impressive," she smirked, "most men your type can't even read, which is understandable considering you are dumb enough to get blood on your hands for someone else's benefit."

 

Scowling at that, he casually raised his hand that was holding the gun and backhanded her across the cheek. "Bitches should learn to keep their mouths shut," he said harshly.

Gasping, she lifted a hand to cover her cheek, which was now throbbing. The guy was incredibly strong and she was sure that was going to leave a bruise, but at least she knew he wasn't going to kill her, not yet anyway, "resorting to violence really is the only way you can express yourself, isn't it?"

Shoving the gun against her ribs once more. "Oh, there's another way that I enjoy expressing myself." He looked over at her, his eyes sweeping over her as he smirked. "You'll find out later."

 

Tightening her jaw, Chloe gave him a disgusted look, trying to ignore the pain that the gun was causing against her ribs, "if doing something to someone against their will makes you feel good, you really have more issues than I thought," She knew she should shut up, but she couldn't stop herself. If Ollie and Clark didn't get to her in time, there was no telling what this guy was going to be doing to her and if this was the only control she had over the whole situation, she planned on holding on to it.

 

He shrugged a little. "I'm going to kill you anyway. May as well have as much fun as I can with you first." He pulled the car up the long driveway. "Oh, look. We're here."

With a deep breath, she looked over at the mansion, it was north of Metropolis, the opposite side that Smallville was on. She didn't know if Clark could hear her even if she had the opportunity to call out for help.

"Oh, great, at least I don't have to put up with you anymore. I'm sure good ol' Edward is going to be much more entertaining as he tries to be intimidating."

He parked the car and flung open the driver's side door, grabbing her none-too-gently by her arm and hauling her across the seats and dragging her out of the vehicle. "The more you talk, the worse I'm going to hurt you before I kill you," he told her, his mouth against her ear.

Chloe kicked her legs, pursing her lips together and doing her best not to make any kind of pained noise as he dragged her out of the car, her legs not wanting to respond as she forced herself to stand up, "you're gonna have to try much harder than that to shut me up," she did her best to narrow her eyes at him stumbling slightly as he started dragging her towards the mansion, her stomach in knots as she looked down the driveway and saw no sign of Oliver or Clark, she had to take a deep breath to control herself, trying to push away thoughts of never seeing either one of them again as her eyes started tearing up.

She refused to show any signs of weakness for as long as she could.

* * *

"So. You're the one who's caused me so much extra work." Edward Teague's voice was much quieter than the man who'd dragged her into the mansion. He studied her intensely, noting the bruise on her face that had already formed.

"That would be me," she crossed her arms over her chest, wincing as her fingers brushed her ribs but doing her best to stand up straight as the older man circled her, watching her like a hawk, "I have to say, it was nice to find out where your son and wife got it from, the lying and the stealing, I don't know if you were involved in the whole thing, but I'm sure you remember the ordeal about Isobel Thoreaux that lead to their deaths? Did you ever thank Lana and Lex for getting rid of them for you?"

Edward couldn't help but smirk at her. "I had a feeling you were witty. I have very good instincts about people." He studied her. "Really, it's a shame to kill you."

"Funny, you're not the first or second person to say that to me and yet, here I am." She told him, with a smile, "and since you're the second most powerful man in Metropolis and the first one already tried to kill me on more than one occasion, I don't think you'll have better luck than he did."

"Ah, yes, Lionel." He continued to study her. "You must have been quite clever to escape his wrath."

"And get him in jail," she smirked a little, "I have to brag about that one, sorry."

 

"Unfortunately, that didn't last, did it?" His voice was soft.

"More than a day," she reminded him, shrugging a shoulder, "which for a man with his power, I like to think is a pretty impressive feat."

"Indeed." He watched her for a moment. "What do you know about this Green Arrow, Miss Sullivan?"

Sighing deeply, she rolled her eyes, "I assume you've read the articles, and if you have, you know what I know. Vigilante, has a thing for helping people, stealing from the rich, modern day Robin Hood, doesn't like personal questions and is quite a pro at dodging them." She said, doing her best to shrug his question off and hoping she sounded convincing.

 

"I see." He nodded slightly. "I was hoping you could provide me with more information, but perhaps I over-estimated your usefulness." He glanced at the man who'd been standing behind her, and nodded at him.

 

Smirking, he grabbed her arm and began to pull her out of the room.

This time, she didn't say anything, her stomach turned and she kept her eyes on Edward Teague even as the other man effortlessly dragged her away. She hadn't expected him to give up so easily, she was hoping to buy some time, but now it was too late.

 

* * *

It hadn't taken long to run the license plates on the car that had abducted Chloe, and even less time to put the clues together and figure out the reason she was taken was because of her article exposing Edward Teague as a thief. He'd made his way to the Teague mansion at the edge of town in record time, pushing his bike to its limits. He was just in time to see the same car pulling out of the driveway and he gunned the engine on his bike, narrowing his eyes as he pulled out in front of the vehicle and sped a little ways down the road.

He stopped his bike in the middle of the street and pulled out his crossbow.

And then he waited.

* * *

"I'm glad that didn't take long, aren't you?" He smirked at Chloe as he drove, barely noticing the bike that had sped around the car.

Chloe didn't so much see the bike as she heard the unmistakable engine, her heart felt lighter for a second but since after a moment of silence she didn't hear anything else, she wondered if it had been her mind playing tricks on her. Either Oliver was there and he was going to get her out of this, or he wasn't. Either way, it should be over soon.

"Sure, I couldn't wait to have some more alone time for our uneducated conversations, what would you like to talk about next? About how your parents didn't love you enough and you need approval so bad that you kill for Teague so you can get some kind of recognition in your life?"

 

"Actually I was thinking that I should have gagged you this time, but I actually enjoy the sound of a woman screaming, so I'll deal with it." He glanced at her sideways, the gun trained on her steadily. When he glanced forward again, he saw someone _standing_ in the middle of the road and he quickly slammed on the brakes, cursing as he swerved. "What the fuck!"

Her eyes widened when the headlights hit the person that was standing on the road and all she could see was a flash of green and she _knew_ it was him. Taking the opportunity that the man had been distracted she used the only weapon she had: her teeth. Biting down hard on the man's arm, she tugged on the gun, pulling it from his hand as quickly as possible.

He gasped in surprise, then withdrew his arm quickly, grabbing hold of her hair and yanking hard enough that the gun tumbled to the floor of the car. He reached down to get it just as the driver's side door was ripped open. It took his brain a moment to register that he was being dragged out of the vehicle.

And when he looked up at his attacker, he knew he was in trouble.

* * *

Oliver had never been so angry as he yanked the man out of the car, dragging him down the pavement. He reached down and yanked the man's arms behind his back, handcuffing him easily, his breathing hard and unsteady. He kicked him in the stomach. "You move and I'll kill you," he said into the distorter, meaning it. Then he quickly headed to the passenger side of the car, pulling the door open.

"Chloe?"

Chloe hadn't stopped to watch what Oliver was doing to the man, she reached down under the driver's seat and picked up the gun, ignoring the throbbing on her ribs and in her head as she sat up quickly only to see Oliver standing right next to her seat. With a deep breath, she pushed herself out of the car and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, gun still firmly in her hand.

 

He swallowed hard, burying his face against her hair. "Are you all right?"

"I'm okay," she said quietly, not letting go of him, "you're here."

 

Oliver pressed a kiss to her temple. "I knew something was wrong when you didn't answer my texts," he whispered, his chest still tight.

Nodding, she pulled her head back to look up at him, "lets just get out of here, okay?"

He nodded, as well, gently reaching out and taking the gun from her hand. He tucked it into his belt and took hold of her hand, guiding her over to his bike even as he pulled his phone out and called the police, telling them he'd left a gift for them at their location. "Have you ever been on a motorcycle before?" he asked, turning to look at her once again.

Chloe shook her head, looking at him, "not that I can remember." She glanced over to the man to make sure he was still on the floor then looked back at Oliver.

He nodded slightly and climbed onto the bike. "Just climb on behind me and put your arms around my waist, okay?"

Doing as she was told, she shifted as close as possible and held on to him tightly, "I'm ready." She told him quietly, just ready to get away from that man and that place and be back somewhere where she didn't have to be scared.

He felt her rest her head against his back and he swallowed hard, turning the bike around slowly and heading back toward the clock tower.

* * *

Oliver had driven much more slowly on the way back than he had when he'd been on his way to the Teague mansion. Partially because he wasn't in a state of panic-ridden fury, but mostly because he hadn't thought to bring a helmet along before he'd taken off to find her, and he wasn't going to take anymore chances with her life. He parked the bike in the underground garage under the clocktower and slowly slid off it, reaching out to help her off.

She took his hand and climbed off of the bike, stretching her bed a little as she did and looking up at his face, "how did you find me so fast?" She asked quietly.

"I got to the Planet as he was shoving you into the car," he said just as quietly, pushing his hood off and removing his glasses. "I memorized the plates, but I didn't have my bike there." He winced at the sight of the bruise on her cheek. "I'm so sorry."

Chloe shook her head and took a deep breath, "I'm so glad you got there when you did," she told him quietly, watching him and forcing a smile on her lips, "I guess it will take another story to get him to learn not to mess with us."

 

He kissed her forehead gently. "Come on. Let's get you upstairs."

Sighing softly, she nodded, taking his hand in hers again and starting towards the elevator.

Oliver gave her hand a gentle squeeze and let silence fall between them as the elevator ascended to the top floor. "Are you hurt anywhere else?" he asked worriedly as he guided her to the sofa a couple moments later.

"I'm not really hurt," she told him quietly and reached down to lift her shirt, "but I think I have another bruise, but it's nothing too bad," she assured him.

He knelt down on the floor, watching her raise the hem of her shirt and wincing again as he saw the black and blue marks on her ribcage. He closed his eyes for a moment, then leaned in and kissed her there softly.

Chloe half winced, half shivered when he kissed her then lifted a hand to cup his face, lifting his chin so he would look at her, "I bruise easily," she kept her voice quiet as she spoke, she just didn't want to scare him.

His eyes were teary as he looked at her. "I should have gotten there sooner."

"Ollie," she whispered, shaking her head and sliding off of the couch, wrapping her arms around his neck and holding his gaze, "nothing happened, this is nothing, I'm okay, I promise," her voice broke a little as she saw the look on his face, "I'm okay thanks to you."

He lifted a hand to cup the side of her face that wasn't bruised and kissed her very softly on the lips. "I could have lost you tonight," he whispered, leaning his forehead against hers.

With a deep breath, she leaned into his touch, her own eyes teary, "I was afraid I wasn't going to see you again," she admitted quietly.

 

Oliver kissed the corner of her mouth. "I'm right here," he whispered. He swallowed hard. "Chloe, I have to tell you something."

Chloe nodded, holding his gaze and taking a deep breath, her hand holding on to his vest as she watched him, "okay?"

He drew in a deep breath, as well. "I've never been that scared before," he admitted quietly. "The thought of you not being in my life..." He shut his eyes for a moment. "Chloe, what I'm trying to say is that I love you." His voice was very quiet. "And I know we haven't been together that long, but I needed to say it because I almost didn't have the chance to."

She just looked at him for a moment, then leaned closer and kissed him, holding on to him as tightly as she could even at the broke the kiss, ignoring the dull ache from her ribs, "I love you too," she whispered, meeting his eyes again, "I have been wanting to tell you that for weeks but I was afraid it might be too soon and I'm glad I had the chance to tell you."

Oliver leaned his forehead against hers once more. "You know, no one's told me that since...my parents died," he whispered, holding her just as tightly, his arms above her ribs to avoid hurting her. "Thank you."

Cupping the back of his head, she shook her head, keeping her eyes on his, "I love you, Ollie," she repeated, kissing the corner of his mouth, "you mean so much to me."

"That's good," he whispered. "Because the feeling is mutual and...you're stuck with me." He kissed her gently.

Chloe kissed him back, holding on to him still, "no one I rather be stuck with."

He brushed a gentle kiss against her bruised cheek. "How'd I get so lucky?"

"I was just wondering the same thing," she told him quietly, taking a deep breath.

 

Oliver carefully scooped her into his arms and picked her up off the floor. "Let's get you cleaned up, all right?"

Chloe wrapped her arms around his neck and shook her head, "I can walk, you know?"

 

"I know," he answered with a nod, even as he carried her down the hallway.

She leaned into him and kissed his cheek softly then laid her head over his shoulder.

He pressed a kiss to her temple, then gently laid her down on his bed. "I'm gonna grab some ice for those bruises," he whispered.

Looking up at him, she touched his face and nodded a little, "okay."

Oliver turned his face and pressed a kiss to the palm of her hand. "Be right back." He slowly headed out of the room, moving to the kitchen. He grabbed a bag of frozen peas from the freezer, and the small ice pack he kept there, wrapping towels around both of them. Then he grabbed a bottle of advil from the cabinet, and a glass of water, carefully carrying all of them back to the room. He sat down on the edge of the bed. He handed her the bottle and the glass before gently putting the frozen peas against her ribcage.

Chloe had sat up on the bed and was leaning back against the pillows then he got back, she took the advil and the water and winced when he pressed the cold bag against her ribs, "thank you," she said quietly, watching him.

"Sorry," he murmured, resting a hand on her stomach without thinking about it. "Are you sure you're all right? Maybe I should take you to the hospital to be sure." The worry in his voice was evident.

 

Nodding, she looked up at him, relaxing against the pillows, "I'm okay, I don't wanna go anywhere."

"All right," he whispered, leaning over and kissing her forehead tenderly. "I'm gonna change, okay? Then I'll be back."

She opened the bottle of advil and nodded, taking a couple, "okay, I'll be here," she told him, smiling softly.

He smiled back, then left the room once more, returning after he'd changed into a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt. Then he moved over to sit beside her on the bed once more. "We need to come up with a plan to get Teague behind bars." His voice was quiet.

"I know," she told him quietly, reaching for his hand, "but I don't know how we're going to manage to keep him in there, even if we get him arrested."

Oliver slid his fingers through hers and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "We'll figure something out." He drew in a breath and let it out slowly. "But right now you just need to rest." He shifted closer to her on the bed, sliding his other arm around her shoulders.

Chloe slid her pants off and kicked them to the floor before curling up against his side and wrapping an arm around him, "my editor is going to kill me."

 

His eyebrows furrowed. "Why?"

"I didn't finish my article." She told him quietly, sighing as she laid her head on his shoulder.

"Oh," he murmured, reaching up to stroke her hair gently. "Well, if he gives you any trouble, just remind him you're the only reporter Green Arrow is willing to talk to." There was a hint of teasing in his voice. "And if that doesn't work, then I'll buy the Planet and fire him."

Smiling slightly, she nodded, "I will try to calm him down with my story about being kidnapped, if it doesn't work, I will try your options," she lifted a head and kissed his cheek.

 

Oliver kissed her forehead in return. "All right." He rubbed her back gently.

Sighing softly, she closed her eyes and pressed her face against his neck, "I'm glad you're here," she whispered, hugging him tightly before relaxing slowly. She had been scared earlier, almost terrified, but now that she was there with him, the whole thing felt like a distant bad dream.

"Always will be," he murmured. Because as long as she wanted him, she had him.


End file.
